Profile

Photo:

Colleen Sprigg

My CV

  • Education:

    I went to St Francis Xavier primary school in Oldbury, West Midlands and St Paul’s School for Girls’ secondary school in Birmingham before going to university for my undergraduate masters at the University of Birmingham, and the moving to the University of East Anglia to do my PhD

  • Qualifications:

    I got 9 A*s, 2 A’s and one B in my GCSEs, and got 2 A’s and a B in My A Level’s in Biology, Psychology and History, and a B in AS Level Chemistry.

    I got a 1st Class degree with Honours in MSci Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham and now I’m working towards my PhD in Biomolecular Science

  • Work History:

    My first job was as a Christmas Temp at Argos when I was 16, from there I have worked in a library, I worked for 2 years as hospitality and bar staff at Edgbaston Cricket Grounds, and 4 years working as a customer service advisor for Homebase whilst also working as a volunteer research assistant in an academic research lab during my degree

  • Current Job:

    I am currently working towards my PhD at the University of East Anglia

  • About Me:

    I’m Colleen! I’m a PhD Student in Norwich looking at chicken poop and plants and I love to crochet and drink tea!

  • Read more

    I live in Norwich with my best friend Hannah and we’re both scientists! We have 6 fish who keep us entertained. My favourite food is curry and I know every word to Shrek (with terrible voices and accents for every character). I spend my spare time crocheting blankets and failing to keep houseplants alive. My pronouns are she/her.

  • Read more

    I work with a really cool bunch of people and collaborate with a company who are really interested in the sugar called inositol, which has a lot of really important functions in plants and animals. I do most of my work in the lab but I’m lucky that some of my work also involves me looking at plants, so I get to do look at the genes and sugars in a variety of crop plants and get to spend time planting and growing them.

    The other members of my lab work on a huge variety of things, from proteins to soil, and I love to see all of the cool things they get up to! Sometimes that means drawing with colourful bacteria for great twitter photos…

  • My Typical Day:

    I get up pretty early and head into the lab, pop on my lab coat and spend most of my day mashing up frozen plants and moving really small amounts of clear liquids between tubes!

  • Read more

    I spend most of my time in the lab, making copies of DNA to check for mutations in plants and to make extra protein using bacteria. I also do experiments with proteins I’ve copied to make sugars, which is mostly moving lots of tiny amounts of clear liquids into tiny tubes and then waiting around for a few hours before popping them into machines to see if its worked!

    My lab bench isn’t always this clean, but I promise I try!

    During my waits (aside from drinking tea and dancing around the lab) I get to plant out seeds and prune plants for experiments

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Motivated, creative and loud

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      Psychiatrist

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      Nope!

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      Fleetwood Mac

      What's your favourite food?

      Chicken balti

      If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

      To own a dog; to see the Northern Lights; to be able to reach the top shelf in the supermarket without asking strangers for help

      Tell us a joke.

      A slice of apple pie is $2 in Jamaica, its $2.50 in the Bahamas. These are the Pie Rates of the Caribbean.

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